Mitigation of Ischemia/Reperfusion-Induced Acute Kidney Injury by Canagliflozin Is Associated with Altered Mitochondrial Dynamics and Reduced Proliferation in Swine.

Abstract

Increasing evidence implicates mitochondrial/cellular dynamics in ischemia reperfusion (I/R)-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Sodium-glucose-co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2is, e.g., canagliflozin, CG) have been shown to mitigate I/R-induced AKI. Here, we hypothesized that CG-improved AKI was associated with altered mitochondrial dynamics and apoptosis in a previously established swine model. CG (300 mg, PO) significantly increased pro-apoptotic genes,,,andexpression (all< 0.05).(= 0.0019),(= 0.038), and(= 0.0093) expression also increased with CG, implicating mitophagy; PINK1 protein levels were unchanged. The expression of mitochondrial fission regulatorincreased with CG treatment (= 0.0015) while fusion regulatorexpression decreased (= 0.038). TUNEL staining showed increased apoptosis primarily in damaged proximal tubular cells of CG animals. Ki67 staining revealed I/R-injury increased cell proliferation throughout the kidney, which was significantly attenuated with CG. Moreover, correlative analysis revealed that AKI severity positively correlated with cell proliferation. In this large animal model, CG reduced AKI via increased mitochondrial fission and pro-apoptotic gene expression, potentiating clearance of damaged mitochondria, and decreased cell proliferation. Future studies should evaluate other SGLT2is as a potential therapeutic for I/R AKI.